On an island in the middle of the ocean, the fishermen ensure that everyone has enough to eat by giving the gods their daughters, throwing them into the sea. All of them do this except for Muthana (Al Farhan), who saves Hayat (Hajjar), making her an outcast.

Twelve years later, as her mother becomes pregnant again, there’s a chance she can become part of the village and her family, but a boy is born. She’s taken to the water again and yet escapes, ending up a fisherman herself on the boat sailed by Amer (Ashraf Barhoum).

The older sailor doesn’t know what to make of the woman with scales on one foot; what are we to make of the villagers who have been eating mermaids, the very daughters they tossed into the ocean, reborn?

Directed by Shahad Ameen, this black and white Saudi film is bleak. But isn’t the world getting darker for women over just the last few weeks? The men are free to sail the open waters while the women hide indoors, praying that their child may either feed the village as part of their death or that their next child be a man. I’ll think about this film for many days to come.

Scales is part of the new Severin box set, All the Haunts Be Ours Volume 2. It has extras including a conversation with director Shahad Ameen and producer Rula Nasser moderated by filmmaker/author Kier-La Janisse, a trailer and the short film Kindil.

You can order this set from Severin.